kengr

While reading a fantasy story on the net, I had an odd idea.

Picture a typical Fantasy world, say Conan, or Fafhrd & Gray Mouser. Now, add an ice age (never mind how it is that they couldn't stop it)

So. the ice age is ending. The glaciers are retreating. And I'm wondering what would survive to be exposed as they do. I think even a wizard's castle (unless it had *really* strong magic and the magic was being maintained) would lose to an advancing ice sheet. Cities, towns and villages, not a chance.

But what about all those underground labyrinths, catacombs and "dungeons"? Would they survive?

If they do, how easily would the entrances (or the entries to lower levels if the upper levels got scraped off by the ice) be found?

Most of the denizens would have likely died over the centuries or millennia that they were sealed off by the ice. But some might survive. and some of those might have opened up the entrances from below. Woe to the party of adventurers who fail to note the signs of the entry being opened from below.

And, of course, entries that do get exposed will attract new tenants. Plus the orcs, goblins and what not may find entrances while digging for other reasons. Not sure that dwarves and the like would be incautious enough to go digging where there are signs of old work, given what might be lurking. Then again, there might be gold...

So you could have new "monsters" in the "dungeons" as well as ancient and long forgotten horrors. And the new tenants won't know the secrets of the delvings, but the old ones might.

Might make for an "interesting" setting.

Oh yes, I can see some magic items being durable enough to be found in the rock and gravel deposits left behind by the retreating ice. Maybe some precious metals and gems (though most would have been ground to powder).

So there'd be reasons to go prospecting in those deposits. A wise man might be wary of mysteriously intact statues, building stones or metalwork they find. But how many prospector types are all that wise?

Even if I was still gaming, I'm not sure I could pull this one off. Especially since I haven't a clue how to figure out how justifiable having the "dungeons" survive is.

Probably just file this away like my old thoughts about doing "stone age" D&D (Clan of the Cave Bear with magic and elves? :-)